Are Luxury Brands Becoming Dance’s Most Important Patrons?

Are Luxury Brands Becoming Dance’s Most Important Patrons? In recent years, luxury-brand patronage of dance has expanded significantly. In 2020, jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels established Dance Reflections, a program supporting contemporary-dance creation that has so far presented dance festivals in cities including London, New York, Seoul, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Kyoto. In 2021, Chanel established the Chanel Next Prize, which awards €100,000 to creatives—including choreographers—from across the globe every two years. Such investments have become crucial as dance faces mounting financial pressures that are partly due to dwindling government funding. President Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts last year. Meanwhile, in the UK and Europe, where the arts sector has long depended on state backing, ongoing cuts have left institutions and artists scrambling for alternative support. “As we move into increasingly treacherous waters, we do need [corporate partnerships] to sustain what we do,” says Alistair Spalding, artistic director of London’s Sadler’s Wells theater. As he told Dance Magazine in 2022, VCA’s support enabled the organization to stage a more ambitious, international program than would otherwise have been possible after the dual shock of the pandemic and the UK’s exit from the European Union. But as luxury brands fill dance’s financial gaps, new questions emerge. Why Is the Luxury Sector Funding Dance? Cynics could argue that cultural philanthropy is simply a way for large corporations to make the most of tax incentives. (In the U.S., for example, corporate contributions made to eligible nonprofits have been tax-deductible since 1936.) Yet for brands like VCA—whose co-founder Louis Arpels was an avid ballet enthusiast—Dance Reflections is about continuing a longstanding cultural affinity. Other brands also have deep-rooted ties to dance: Coco Chanel funded and designed for the avant-garde Ballets Russes in the 1920s, and Yves Saint Laurent frequently collaborated with Ballet National de Marseille founder Roland Petit. More recent initiatives include Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès’ supporting France’s Centre National de la Danse, an institution dedicated to choreographic creation and touring, and luxury department store Galeries Lafayettes’ establishment of Lafayette Anticipations, a venue in Paris’ Marais district dedicated to exhibiting the visual and performing arts. Current sociopolitical developments have brought that relationship into sharper focus. “Our first intention wasn’t to respond to [dance’s current financial situation], but it became a response,” says Serge Laurent, who was the performance curator at Paris’ Centre Pompidou before becoming VCA’s director of dance and culture programs. He notes that Dance Reflections also has a growing education program, and funds the production of around 30 new works each year. “That’s the base for me, and it’s continuous,” he says. The expansive international reach of Dance Reflections points to another timely ambition: using dance as a form of cultural diplomacy amidst growing global division. For choreographer Bill T. Jones, artistic director of New York Live Arts—which has partnered with VCA on several recent productions—the benefits are tangible. At New York Live Arts, he says, “We’ve had such a retrenchment in the past few years that our reaching out to international artists has been curtailed.” VCA’s support has helped change that. “I’ve been really interested in the artists of color that have reached my theater, and to see how questions of race play out differently in Europe and here,” Jones says. Do Brands Influence What Gets Made and Presented? Luxury sponsors can be attracted to certain types of dance. “They like the cutting edge,” says Spalding, pointing to the meteoric rise of French collective (LA)Horde, whose performances often draw on internet-native ideas and have been frequently programmed in Dance Reflections festivals. “Ultimately, they want a bit of that cool factor.” Yet VCA also has an evident respect for dance history, with the February to March edition of its festival in New York City featuring restagings of works by dance pioneers such as Trisha Brown and Lucinda Childs. For Laurent, this approach is about making contemporary dance more accessible to new audiences. “The best way to do this is to demonstrate that it’s not coming from nowhere,” he says. “It’s the result of a never-ending evolution.” When asked whether New York Live Arts had a say in what was presented during the 2026 New York City edition of Dance Reflections, Bill T. Jones offers a pragmatic view: “They come with strong suggestions. We can push back, but let’s face it, who has the resources?” Still, Jones says he trusts VCA’s taste. “What they give feeds [our mission], and we’re very grateful,” he says. When it comes to how the artists VCA supports develop their work in the studio, however, the brand has no influence, says Korean choreographer Sung Im Her, whose work 1 Degree Celsius was shown as part of Dance Reflections 2025 edition in Seoul. “The support is very transparent, just cash flow for production,” she says. A similar “hands-off” ethos underpins Chanel’s Next Prize. “You don’t even have to spend [the prize money] on art,” says Oona Doherty, one of the 10 prize winners in 2024. “That’s what every choreographer needs—to be like, ‘There’s rent paid for one year.’ ” Her comment points to a broader role for fashion investment: It doesn’t just fund what goes on stage, but also dance’s wider, less glamorous infrastructure. One notable example of this function is Chanel’s support for major renovations across the Paris Opéra’s four historic sites—the Palais Garnier, the Opéra Bastille, the dance school in Nanterre, and the Ateliers Berthier—which will begin in 2027. Are There Ethical Concerns? Receiving money from any source, public or private, can raise ethical questions. Jones recalls how the tobacco company Philip Morris was a major supporter of dance in the 1980s, prompting “all sorts of hand-wringing.” For this reason, many dance organizations carry out thorough due diligence on their partners. “We are very careful. It’s all based on shared values,” says Edilia Gänz, director of European arts philanthropy organization FEDORA. (Its biennial €100,000 prize for dance, sponsored by VCA, is selected by an independent jury of dance-world experts.) Dilemmas can still emerge. Artists have returned or refused prize money in the past. Such decisions depend on individual circumstances. “It’s not a black-and-white line of morals and ethics,” Doherty says. “People come with different baggage and are in different positions to say yes or no.” Sung Im Her suggests that, in such cases, the money might do more good supporting dance than remaining with large corporations. If she ever had concerns about a sponsor, Her says, she believes that voicing them through the resulting artwork would make the loudest statement. She’s more reluctant to collaborate with fashion brands on costuming, citing the environmental impact of garments that are worn a handful of times. Could Private Patronage Replace Public Funding? One recurring concern is that, if fashion brands step in during times of financial strain, governments will feel less pressure to restore public funding to pre-cutback levels. “[Sadler’s Wells has] constantly been talking to different administrations about the importance of public support,” says Spalding. “We can do everything we can to bring in other resources to match it, but it has to be the base.” Jones agrees. “[Brand patronage] is not the same as having a New York State Council on the Arts, or a National Endowment that is an expression of democracy,” he says. “The future of arts funding will depend on a meaningful dialogue between public and private models,” Gänz says. “It’s not about declaring one better than the other, but about how they can reinforce each other to spark greater innovation.” Can It Last? Much of fashion’s current funding of dance is shaped by personal interests of the individuals at the brands’ helms. Dance Reflections, for example, was established under the leadership of Nicolas Bos, who Spalding notes has a long-standing personal interest in the performing arts. When support is so personality-driven, what happens if the people in fashion’s decision-making positions change? Could the crucial support shift elsewhere? “It’s the same feeling all artists have when they have a rich patron—that it can go away,” says Jones. His comment reveals that while luxury’s interest in dance is a largely encouraging development, the art form shouldn’t rely on one sector to be its financial savior. “Nothing lasts forever,” says Spalding. “Things change and different personalities come in. We have to be ready for that.”